How To Keep Mice Out Of Camper?

The first summer I opened up my RV and found mice droppings all over, I wondered how to keep mice out of camper. It took a long time to clean up the camper after the damage from the rodents and I was certain that I didn’t want that to happen again.

1. Look For Holes

When I saw that the mice were in my camper the first thing that I did was check for holes in my RV. You would be really surprised how small of a whole is required for a mouse to fit. Mice can fit in through dime size holes leading to the outside of your RV.

The best way to check is during the daytime. Open up all of your cabinets and drawers and look for light from the outside it is also important to test the dash area and the floor runners as well. If you see any light shining through, You're going to want to secure the holes.

If you do find larger holes, you can use thinly laced wire mesh to keep the mice out. If your holes seem smaller than what a mouse could fit, it’s important to make sure that they are secure anyway. Mice are very crafty and can quickly make a small hole bigger. Using caulk or foam to seal the hole is an easy way to make sure that the mice cannot get in.

When you’re looking for holes, you also want to ensure that any regular openings to the outside, like your water line or your sewer line, are temporarily blocked. This way the mice and other critters cannot get in through those areas.

2. Peppermint Or Mothballs

Just in case you cannot get all of the holes secure; it’s important to make sure that the mice do not like your RV or camper once they are inside. Peppermint oil and mothballs have both been shown to keep mice out of camper. I wondered which worked better to keep the mice out.

Mothballs seem to work okay. The year that I used just mothballs I had less evidence of mice than you normally would. But, I still saw some mice had gotten into the camper. Were there any good ways to keep mice out of camper?

Peppermint oil is something that seems to work on most rodents. Peppermint makes them want to run away. The problem is making sure that you have peppermint oil and not peppermint extract. Peppermint extract is something that you would use in cooking to make peppermint patties or ice cream. Peppermint oil is something that you would find at the health food store in the essential oils section. Making sure that you have the right type of peppermint is a key to keep mice out of camper.

3. Use A Trap Outside

A lot of people who use motorhomes have reported using a 5-gallon bucket mouse trap outside of their camper to keep the mice out. Essentially what the 5-gallon bucket does is to attract the mice before they are in your camper. Once the mice are in the bucket, they cannot get out, so they can’t get into your camper.

To set up the 5-gallon bucket trap, you need to drill holes in two sides of the 5-gallon bucket. The holes should be big enough to place a PVC pipe going straight through the bucket. The holes should be loose enough that the PVC pipe will rotate. Then you put a bait at the bottom of the 5-gallon bucket. A lot of people use something cheap like peanut butter.

When you keep mice out of camper using this method you need to check on the bucket frequently. If you notice a lot of mice in one trap, you may have to use more than one trap outside of your camper. The worst part about this for me was having to get rid of dead mice. It made me feel sick.

4. Keep The Food Out

The first year that I got mice in my camper, I noticed that I had accidentally left some cereal in my dry storage. My son had also spilled food underneath the foldout couch. Having food in the camper made it a lot more inviting for the mice.

Make sure that you have no food in any of your cabinets before you secure your camper for the winter. The next thing that you want to do is clean all areas of your camper thoroughly. You want to check all of the cracks and crevices to make sure that no food debris has been left behind. This is vital if you have small children because they love to hide food in strange places.

5. Place Traps Inside

The final thing that you can do to keep mice out of camper is to set traps inside your camper. A lot of people don’t like to put traps inside of their campers because they have to clean up the traps when they work. If you do not want to clean up dead mice, you can also get live traps. If you get live traps, you want to check the traps frequently so that way you don’t end up killing the mice.

Live mouse traps are also called humane mousetraps. They work because they have a spot for the mouse to enter and no spot for the mouse to leave. The problem with live mousetraps is once you have the mouse caught you need to do something with the live mouse. If you just let the mouse outside it may come right back into your camper.

So, What Have You Done To Keep Mice Out Of Camper?

I have tried all of these to keep mice out of my camper. The one that worked the best for me was making sure no holes were leading to the outside. When I did get mice in my camper, I noticed holes were leading to the outside.

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